Spitalfields

Agas Map

List documents mentioning Spitalfields

List variant names and spellings

Spitalfields was a large area of open fields east
of Bishopsgate Street and a good distance north of
Aldgate and Houndsditch. Spitalfields, also
recorded as Spittlefields and
Lollesworth, is
unmistakable on the Agas map. The large expanse of fields is clearly marked
The Spitel Fyeld. The field
is shown full of livestock and people walking and shooting. As the city
relentlessly expanded its building programs to accommodate the growing
population, Spitalfields became yet another maze
of streets and houses, mainly inhabited by silk weavers (Harben).

Stow describes at length the various archaeological finds unearthed at Spitalfields within his lifetime. Among notable
finds were coins and glasses; pots, plates, and cups made from red clay; and
Roman burial urns full of human ashes from the reigns of Claudius, Vespasian,
Nero, Antonius Pius, and Trajan. Stow proudly tells his reader that I my
selfe haue reserued a mongst diuerse of those antiquities there, one Vrna,
with the Ashes and bones, and one pot of white earth very small, not
exceeding the quantitie of a quarter of a wine pint, made in shape of a
Hare, squatted vpon her legs, and betweene her eares is the mouth of the
pot (Stow).

MLA citation:

Adams, Neil, and Janelle Jenstad.
“Spitalfields.”
The Map of Early Modern London.
Ed. Janelle Jenstad.
Victoria: University of Victoria. Web.
17 August 2017.
<http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/SPIT1.htm>.

Chicago citation:

Adams, Neil, and Janelle Jenstad. n.d.
“Spitalfields.” The Map of Early Modern London.
Ed. Janelle Jenstad.
Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed
August 17, 2017.
http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/SPIT1.htm.